29,770 miniature lights brighten our display this year (pictures coming
soon.) This year we have opened up a walking pathway to travel around
and through our lights. A donation of $1 is collected at the front
entrance of the driveway entrance. The pathway starts right under
the three sky
liners (the square arches w/snowflakes) and continues over towards
the city and bridge.
We are located at the end of East Militia Road, White House Station, NJ
and our property sits at the corner of East Militia Road and Rebel Road
(off to the left) between two circles on either side of our lot. The house
has five dormers and a large Great
Room off the back. The Bridge
and City sit on the far left. Then is the Airplane
and Runway. Next is Santa
and his Nine Reindeer (shown just to the left and in front of the house).
The Fully
Lit Sign sits right in front at the corner; and Frosty
and Crystal the Snowmen sit right behind the lit sign skating on the
ice rink which is bordered by vitual
pine trees. Next you can see a small glimpse of the Drum
and Toy Soldiers, which sit right to the side (shown in front in this
picture) of the driveway
skyliners.
New this year
is a light house, all of men's gymnastics events, another bridge, stable
and manger, two 11 foot high mountains added bhind the icerink to give
a sense of the North Pole, a waterfall spilling out of a bird bath, and
icicles and more lights added to the house.
History of Display and Upcoming Information
I, Darren Pieper, started this grand project by simply outlining the house
before we had our large addition, which doubled the size of our house (the
five dormers and the Great Room were not in existence then.)
In 1991, with somewhere near only 1000 lights outside started my grand
display that it is now. I was only a junior at Hunterdon Central High school.
When I first started, I had no idea that my display would grow to such
a large scale.
In 1992, the dormers were first lit from a series of outside receptacle
plugs that I wired in our new addition.
In 1993, I set out to work on my first icon for our front lawn, the nine
reindeer (each ~4 1/2 feet tall) and the sleigh all built out of plywood.
*** ~3000 lights ***
In 1994, the reindeer & sleigh all received personalized name tags
and detailing. *** ~5000 lights ***
In 1995, I set out to build an 8' long biplane with a 8 1/2' wingspan.
A 3 or 4 year old would find plenty of comfort aboard this plane. The propeller
consists of a cut plywood circle with a chasing light set wired in a spiral
to give it a virtual spinning effect, which has inspired many who visit.
The wired Santa Claus was also an after Christmas addition this year. With
the increase of visitors this year, I built a sign to display title (Santa's
Airport), # of lights, and hours that the display was lit. The Great Room
was first lit. And the Two large trees out front had a few lights in them
that looked almost like lightning when they flashed. ***~8000 lights ***
In 1996, the front posts were changed in giant candy canes with lights,
and the walkway lanterns were also changed into candy canes lanterns (in
1997, they were lit with mini lights). The "Winter
Wonderland" was created consisting of some metal poles used for virtual
pine trees and an virtual ice pond with chasing lights set to their fastest
speed before steady lit to give a glitter effect. Two 8' toy soldiers with
trumpets were built and lit. And a challenging job this year was to get
the 180 lbs. of reindeer & sleigh to fly. The airplane also got a lift.
*** ~12,000 lights ***
In 1997, two snowmen were placed skating on the ice rink (ice pond.) I
built a new 'lit' sign displaying the letters with miniature lights. The
task required three ceiling light panels stuck together to give a holder
for the light. Three
12' high skyliners were built with an 18" snowflake in the middle of
each one. I used my 14' trampoline in front of the toy soldiers to represent
a large drum. The main event that gave a new title, Christmas
City, to my display was the 48' long- 12' high bridge and city surrounding
it. This year, with continued efforts, was the first year the "Hunterdon
County Democrat" newspaper came out and took pictures for their paper.
Visit the page of the article. *** 17,329 lights ***
This year (1997), I started around Halloween, and spent 150 hours putting
up the lights during my 19 credit hours at Rutgers University. Tear down
took only 3 days. There were 4000 lights that lit up the inside the house
in addition to the 17,000 outside.
STATS FOR 1997
Christmas Eve Night ----------between 9:00-11:00------112 cars visited
Christmas Day Night----------between 7:00- 10:00 -----206 cars visited
Thank you for those of you whom donated and left comments!
In 1998, Over 400 hours were spent; 97% done by myself, Darren.
Myself and a friend of mine, Tracy Schmid, started in August preparing
for painting and building the new structures. Lights started going
up around September 20 on the house, and only the clear lights, because
the colored lights tend to fade to quickly in the sun (a lot of sets from
the house last year were retired to other places due to their faded color).
Email your comments, questions, and suggestions to drpieper@eclipse.net.
*** 29,770 lights ***
